The Emerging and Interconnected 'Megapolitan' Regions

They didn’t know it, but Dallas and Fort Worth were really ahead of their time. The two cities, separated by about 35 miles, had for many years been rivals, trying to outshine the other to bring in new businesses and building projects. But in the post-war years of the mid 20th Century, the two cities were spreading increasingly outward and toward one another. The U.S. Census Bureau could see this happening, and started to think of Dallas and Fort Worth as part of the same region. And so in 1964, when each city independently approached the federal government to help build a new airport within each of their respective boundaries, the Federal Aviation Administration told them to scrap their plans and team up on a shared airport. Reluctantly, the rival cities joined forces and now sit on either side of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the center of a booming and interrelated region. That simple, logistical insistence on the part of the federal government created an agglomeration that, according to a new book, will be the future of urbanity in the U.S.

In Megapolitan America, Arthur C. Nelson and Robert E. Lang look ahead to 2040, a point in time when they foresee a United States dominated by 23 "megapolitan" areas, or large regions of interconnected metropolitan areas. As commuting patterns continue to shift, where people work and where they live can be two very different places. These commuting patterns are mainly what informs the Census Bureau’s definition of metropolitan areas, and Nelson and Lang take a similar approach to identify their megapolitans. These are areas that, based on Census projections, will be dominated not only by large and relatively nearby cities, but a strong degree of commuting-based interaction between them into the future.